Join the Discussion: Health Care
December 5th, 2008 | by health |ChangeDotGov asked:
We invited you to join the discussion on health care, and thousands of you did. Now, the Health Policy Team’s Tom Daschle and Lauren Aronson respond. For more information, visit http://change.gov/healthcare
ANTONIA
25 Responses to “Join the Discussion: Health Care”
By cjdaweasel on Dec 6, 2008 | Reply
It’d be nice to go to a doctor and concentrate on the illness rather than worrying “How much is this going to cost me?” Its sad that someone could die not because we don’t have enough trained doctors, or that they live in a poor country, but because they just can’t come up with the money.
By PatsBlog on Dec 7, 2008 | Reply
I think we first need to get the government out of health care. Whenever the government gets involved in anything the price goes up while quality goes down. The government cannot give anything to anyone without stealing it from someone else. Consider the difference in quality between public and private education, yet it generally costs less to educate a student in a private school. Competition and free enterprise keep costs down, not government control.
By evetejah5 on Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
finally someone listents to the word of the people or so they say, but stil awsum!
By slenderlatina on Dec 12, 2008 | Reply
What I would like to change in the health care system is equal access to mental health care. Currently if you are living under the poverty line receiving mental health treatment is incredibly difficult. For example if you are poor and have depression one seeks out help and finds out the cost for therapy and medication is to much. One continues on with no treatment and that makes it difficult to get to work. No work no money.Poverty continues and everyone suffers.
By pnscubed on Dec 13, 2008 | Reply
The statement, “As anyone who does even a little research will see,” shows bias, and no real research is provided here to back the claim.
But I agree that “all Americans can be provided [health care] for far less [money] than it costs us now!”
By pnscubed on Dec 15, 2008 | Reply
I would like to add that it is important to promote disease and illness prevention; but in addition, it is also important to support medical advances that provide permanent solutions. For example, research to define the exact causes for different forms of ADD will yield the technology to pinpoint what form of ADD an individual has and the medication to treat that specific type of ADD permanently–by rebuilding the necessary equilibrium between hormones in the brain.
Also: Laws on junk food?
By pi3573 on Dec 15, 2008 | Reply
like ome said, MANY other countries have a much better health system than we do.
i have alot of Canadian freinds and the stories are always the same.
the fact is that these careproviders have already been paid buy the Gov. so when they treat you the ONLY concern is the Hippocratic oath and YOUR well being.
whereas here the size of your wallet determines the lvl of care you get.
after a disability i became uninsurable.
no matter how much money or what plan i picked. DENIDED,DENIDED,DENIDED
By sonofnapalm on Dec 18, 2008 | Reply
In 1967, Returning troops were affected by strange illnesses. We worked in Doctors from the Veterans Administration to create CHELATED TYPE compounds for poison removal (gb laced heroin + other chemicals that was successful. Oral and IV chealtion plus biological antibiotics is highly effective treatment. AIDS was invented and developed as a weapon of war, a coverup of chemical warfare. Truth will save lives, let the real story of AIDS invention be known to all as treatment is needed for MILLIONS
By justsomebody77 on Dec 19, 2008 | Reply
OMG… Obama is considering preventive healthcare? That’s extra awesome! Eat that, giant evil pharmacies!
By jointhefkndots on Dec 19, 2008 | Reply
I completely agree with the preventative care approach. I lived in Australia for awhile and the government there is big on this. As of today, Australians have an overall longer life expectancy than Americans. I think we can learn a lot from our Aussie friends.
By jointhefkndots on Dec 20, 2008 | Reply
’4. Avoid creating a universal health care sytem whereby everyone gets free health care by the government.’
Care to explain why?
By FlynnLindley on Dec 21, 2008 | Reply
Here’s a scary, true fact: The health care industry gave out 500 million dollars in Washington, D.C. last year. That’s over one million dollars per Congress person and Senator. Write, folks, for God’s sake write because it’s the only input we have.
By FlynnLindley on Dec 22, 2008 | Reply
We hear we cannot afford univeral health care reform. The truth is, if all our citizens get care, the ONLY kind of health care we can afford is universal health care.
By RogerWilbur on Dec 23, 2008 | Reply
Currently, if you loose your job, you loose health care. Health care should be automatically calculated into the rent or mortgage payment. It should NEVER be used as a collective bargaining tool. No one should be excluded. Everyone pays, keeping rates affordable. Basic and preventive health services would be provided. No more pre-existing condition clause or non-paying emergency room patients.
Unlike socialized medicine, this is everyone paying for a privilege, similar to driving privileges.
By loss843 on Dec 23, 2008 | Reply
stimulus checks for people that owe back taxes too they need a economic lift has well
By loss843 on Dec 24, 2008 | Reply
the new stimulus package would be very helpful but i don”t understand why it don”t benefit people that owe the {IRS}taxes the stimulus checks don”t provide them economic relief i hope obama gets this message before it’s too late i dont know how to contact him
By MentierD on Dec 25, 2008 | Reply
We really need to look into introducing market functions in our healthcare system. I like most people will go to a doctor and are never concerned with costs because we use a card. And, obviously our professionals sometimes prescribe us or charge us rediculous prices on services or for health care products.We need an incentive to save costs; we can learn to deal with this by having an incentive to purchase the best deals on services and lowest priced prescription drug services (pref. generics).
By banzaicat2 on Dec 25, 2008 | Reply
Sorry, must add: am self-employed, uninsured, HAD insurance, premium doubled (I hit a birthday and also it just went up) & then I couldn’t get a cheaper, even worse plan w/ same carrier b/c I’d actually ‘used’ my prev coverage for prescriptions (so considered preexisting, have had asthma since childhood). The system is overwhelming, daunting, and troubleshooting any medical problem almost impossible. Lack of healthcare has been hugely defining in my own life. Please help.
By fwhamill on Dec 28, 2008 | Reply
The government should nationalize the insurance companies and the pharma companies. Doctors are greedy trogodites. Insurance companies are robber barons and pharmaceutical companies are animal torturers whose use of non-human experiments causes great hearm to humans. They don’t seem to realize that rats and humans are different animals.
By kroozzer66 on Dec 30, 2008 | Reply
The healthcare insurance problem that affects so many people including myself are preexisting conditions. Especially if one can only ce companies do not want people with problems. What is the purpose of health care if not to help existing conditions?
Also as a person get older before medicare the insurance rates are prohibitably high! Very hard to afford for someone on fixed income. Perhaps to expand medicare to people in their 50′s or younger. Single payer would be very good too!! HELP
By humanman1963 on Jan 1, 2009 | Reply
The only way to fix this system is to out compete the insurance companies by offering coverage that is better and cheaper. The only way to do this is to Cut The Fat out of Healthcare. Half of every Dollar spent today goes toward, Medical billing costs, Record keeping cost, Administrative fees, Malpractice insurance. Cut these cost out by eliminating the need for them. Unified automatic billing, electronic records, fire the suits, and limit liability, bring criminal prosecution for bad lapses.
By jerel42 on Jan 1, 2009 | Reply
I really believe we do need a paradigm shift, one where we get the insurance companies out of health care. We should use one of the single-payer models, they generally work very well as anyone who does even a little research will see. All Americans can be provided for, cradle to grave, at high quality, for far less cost than it costs us now!
By Dasea4me2 on Jan 2, 2009 | Reply
I believe we need to look at other countries that provide health care to all its citizens. It is a sad situation, that the USA is so far behind in providing health care to all. The USA needs to re-evaluate the billions of dollars that we send to other nations/countries. WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN FIRST,then provide for others.
By Joanlwood on Jan 4, 2009 | Reply
1. Create a wellness system NOT one based on disease & injuries to include: body- mind -spirit wellness.
2. Train more advanced nurse practitioners,& physician assistants. Reduce need for MDs.
3. Mandate use electronic medical records.
4. Avoid creating a universal health care sytem whereby everyone gets free health care by the government.
5. Use incentives to stay well and reimburse for such.
By thebaron512 on Jan 5, 2009 | Reply
These doctors and nurses paid large sums of money to earn their degrees and work long hard hours at their job and they should be paid well for their work. They must continue their education as well or else lose their job. The Hospital is the problem and EVERYONE has access to care, but not everyone has the means to pay for their care without going into debt. The Hospitals and Insurance companies drive our medical costs, but our Government is a huge reason that we have high cost as well.